Online Content Boom Fuels Threat of Writers' Strike

Posted on September 26, 2007

The growing number of online shows and Web-only content is increasingly becoming a source of contention with the Writers Guild. The studios don't pay the writers standard wages and the writers are either non-union or are union scribes working with a non-union contract. Tensions are running so high that there is a real possibility of a writers' strike looming on the horizon in Hollywood.

CBS has a mockumentary, "Clark and Michael," while ABC's "Voicemail" is a voyeuristic peek into the life of a twentysomething single guy. The Web series reflect the networks' headlong drive to harness the Internet and lure a young, and increasingly elusive, audience. Yet the online rush has heightened tensions between the major studios and networks and the unionized actors and writers who fear being shortchanged by this new digital frontier.
To handle much of the Web work, networks are relying heavily on nonunion scribes and guild writers who are quietly working outside of union contracts. In some cases, networks and television studios have created separate nonunion companies to create original online entertainment on shoestring budgets.

Patric Verrone, president of WGA, West, tells the L.A> Times, "The more it looks like television is migrating to the Internet, the more important it is for us to ensure that writers are covered under a writers guild contract. We certainly don't want to get left behind the way we were with cable television, reality TV and animation."

This really is the biggest issue facing the Writers Guild today. Original web programming is simply exploding. Will Ferrell writes and stars in short films which are Web-only. And the hit show Heroes has talented graphic novelists working overtime to create stories that supplement the show's mythology. Technology has made much of the language in these contracts outdated. The studios still need the Writers Guild; it's time to come to the table and hammer out a deal for digital content that's fair to everyone, including writers.